Highlights
The Federal Reserve's assets totaled $4.446 trillion in the January 10 week and are down $13.0 billion from the beginning of balance sheet unwinding in October 2017.

The Fed's holdings of U.S. Treasury securities were $2.448 trillion in the latest week, down $18.0 billion from October 2017 while holdings of mortgage-backed securities were at $1.765 billion, down $3.0 billion. Note that the winding down of mortgage-backed securities can be uneven due to special factors in the agency market including unscheduled prepayments of principal as well as timing differences in payments and settlements.

The weekly change in total assets increased $2.3 billion after decreasing $5.0 billion in the prior week. The gain in the latest week was centered in other assets which rose $2.6 billion.

Reserve Bank credit for the January 10 week decreased $2.4 billion after decreasing $10.1 billion in the prior week.

Definition
The Fed's balance sheet is a weekly report presenting a consolidated balance sheet for all 12 Reserve Banks that lists factors supplying reserves into the banking system and factors absorbing reserves from the system. The report is officially named Factors Affecting Reserve Balances, otherwise known as the "H.4.1" report.

In September 2017, the Fed announced a program to reduce its balance sheet by the gradual reduction of both its Treasury and mortgage-backed security holdings. The monthly reductions, executed by reinvesting a decreasing amount of maturing securities, began in October 2017 and will gradually increase in size before hitting a plateau in October 2018 where they will hold until the FOMC judges that the Fed is holding no more securities than necessary. Under the schedule for 2018, the Fed's Treasury holdings will be reduced by $270 billion while holdings of mortgage-backed securities will be reduced by $180 billion.
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